WJPA Sports

Survive & advance. It’s March Madness second weekend for both the men’s and women’s tournaments. After this weekend, we’ll be down to the Final Four. WJPA-AM (1450) is your home for the NCAA Men’s & Women’s Basketball Championships, right through the finals Sunday/Monday, April 5/6.

Friday, March 27
Women’s Sweet 16
#6 Notre Dame > #2 Vanderbilt, 67-64 (WJPA-AM)
#1 UConn > #4 North Carolina, 63-42 (WJPA-AM)
#1 UCLA > #4 Minnesota, 80-56
#3 Duke > #2 LSU, 87-85

Men’s Sweet 16 – all on WJPA-AM
#1 Duke > #5 St. John’s, 80-75
#1 Michigan > #4 Alabama, 90-77
#2 UConn > #3 Michigan State, 67-63
#6 Tennessee > #2 Iowa State, 76-62

Saturday, March 28
Women’s Sweet 16
12:30 pm #2 Michigan vs. #3 Louisville (WJPA-AM)
3:00 pm #1 Texas vs. #5 Kentucky (WJPA-AM)
4:45 pm #1 South Carolina vs. #4 Oklahoma
7:45 pm #3 TCU vs. #10 Virginia

Men’s Elite 8 – both on WJPA-AM
6:00 pm #3 Illinois vs. #9 Iowa
8:40 pm #1 Purdue vs. #2 Purdue

Thursday, March 26
Men’s Sweet 16
#2 Purdue 79, #11 Texas 77
#9 Iowa 77, #4 Nebraska 71
#1 Arizona 109, #4 Arkansas 88
#3 Illinois 65, #2 Houston 55

Pittsburgh eighth-grader Otto Schellhammer made it to the Sweet 16 before missing his first pick in the women’s NCAA Tournament. No. 6 seed Notre Dame beat second-seeded Vanderbilt on Friday in Fort Worth, Texas, to open the regional rounds. That ended the 14-year-old’s run as the only perfect bracket left after the opening weekend of the men’s and women’s tournaments. There had been more than 40 million entries across all the major contests.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated a rare back-to-back World Series run by receiving championship rings in a pregame ceremony. Players opened blue boxes that play postseason highlights from their seven-game win over the Toronto Blue Jays. Shohei Ohtani raised a fist as he put his ring on. Fans cheered loudest for Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto and chanted for Freddie Freeman. Mookie Betts added a fourth ring to his collection that includes his first with Boston. Retired pitching star Clayton Kershaw received his ring from his former teammates. The rings include diamonds, sapphires, and dirt from home plate in Game 7.

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Ben Kindel scored the shootout winner to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night. Rickard Rakell scored twice and had an assist, and Erik Karlsson also scored for the Penguins, who moved into second in the Metropolitan Division. Drake Batherson scored twice and Nick Cousins also scored for the Senators. Tim Stutzle added two assists. Both Linus Ullmark and Stuart Skinner made huge saves in overtime to force the shootout.  Sidney Crosby left the game early in the second period with an undisclosed injury barely a week after he returned from a lower-body injury sustained at the Olympics with Team Canada. Crosby took a 38-second opening shift in the second period before heading through the tunnel toward the locker room. The Penguins later announced he would not return to the game. Coach Dan Muse said afterward he had no update on Crosby’s condition.

NEW YORK (AP) — Brett Baty laced a bases-loaded triple and the New York Mets chased Paul Skenes in the first inning of his worst major league start, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-7 in their season opener at Citi Field. Carson Benge homered in his first career game, going back-to-back with Francisco Alvarez at the bottom of a new-look lineup, and Freddy Peralta won his Mets debut as New York improved to 42-23 on opening day. That’s the best record of any big league team — even though the Mets lost their first eight openers from 1962-69. Brandon Lowe homered twice and fellow Pirates newcomer Ryan O’Hearn also went deep, but Pittsburgh’s pitching and defense were dreadful in a disappointing start.